Institute Honors 2014 Living Building Challenge Heroes

Friday, May 23, 2014

The International Living Future Institute™ announced the recipients of its 2014 Living Building Challenge™ Heroes Award. The new Heroes were recognized at the Institute’s Big Bang Dinner, a focal point of its annual Living Future unConference. Individuals who receive this distinction have demonstrated a fierce commitment to the Living Building Challenge and their desire to continually raise the bar on behalf of the green building industry.

“Today, we honor these heroes for their unwavering commitment to the building industry’s most rigorous performance standard. We salute them for continually challenging and upleveling how projects are designed, materials are specified and construction is performed,” says Amanda Sturgeon, Institute Vice President in charge of the Living Building Challenge. “I wager that in the not-too-distant future, people beyond the built environment will remember these people as pioneers in the growing global efforts to combat climate change, lower health risks and right social justice wrongs.”

This year’s Heroes are:

Joshua Berger, Captain and Living Ship project manager of the National Historic Landmark and working educational tall ship, the schooner Adventuress. Joshua was recognized for his efforts to bring the Living Building Challenge to the maritime industry.

Johanna Brickman, Director of Collaborative Innovation, Oregon BEST. Johanna is a past Chair of the board of the International Living Future Institute and has facilitated Red List materials innovation in Oregon through the Oregon Best Red List Design Challenge.

Mary Casey, Chair of the Board of the Living Future Institute Australia and Facilitator of the Sydney Living Building Challenge Collaborative. Mary has been instrumental in developing the uptake of the Living Building Challenge in Australia.

Lance Jeffery, Project Manager at University of Wollongong, Australia. Lance is the Owner’s Manager of two key Living Building Challenge projects in Australia and serves on the board of the Living Future Institute Australia. The Sustainable Building Research Center is aiming to be the first Living Building project certified in Australia.

Caroline Pidcock, Director of PIDCOCK – Architecture + Sustainability, Sydney, Australia. Caroline is the past chair of the board of the Living Future Institute of Australia, during her term she brought structure and integrity to the emerging organization.

Anthony Ravitz, Google’s Real Estate and Workplace Services (e)Team Lead. Anthony has worked tirelessly to implement Materials Health standards at Google that reference the Red List, creating a ripple effect through the entire building industry.

Pauline Souza, Partner and Director of Sustainability, WRNS Studio. Pauline has been instrumental in the success of the San Francisco Living Building Challenge Collaborative, volunteering significant amounts of time to spread the word around the mission of the program throughout the Bay area.

Kath Williams, Founder Kath Williams + Associates. Kath had a significant founding influence on the emergence of the Living Building Challenge and inspired the beginnings of the program. Without her inspiration the program would not be thriving today.

Heroes were nominated by Institute staff and other individuals familiar with their accomplishments. They were selected by Sturgeon and Institute CEO, Jason F. McLennan.

International Living Future Institute is an environmental NGO committed to catalyzing the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought-leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. It operates the Living Building Challenge, Declare, Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Press and other critical leading-edge programs. The Living Building Challenge is the 2012 winner of the Buckminster Fuller Prize.

About the Living Building Challenge:

The Living Building Challenge calls for the creation of building projects at all scales (from single-room renovations to whole neighborhoods) that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture. To achieve certification, a project must meet 20 rigorous Imperatives (including net zero energy, waste and water) over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy. To date, five projects have achieved full certification, and an additional 4 have met Petal Certification and eight have received Net Zero Energy Building Certification.

2015: Year of the Nature-Rich City?

Monday, February 23, 2015

Today, 54 percent of the world’s people live in urban places, and by 2050, that number will rise to 66 percent. The worldwide migration into cities (not only by humans, but also by some species of wild animals) isn’t going to reverse anytime soon.